


A Little Snip

by Blink23



Series: A Universe of New Colors [3]
Category: Papillon (2018)
Genre: Childbirth, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Mpreg, mentioned miscarriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-07 13:37:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18411740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blink23/pseuds/Blink23
Summary: Papi and Sergio are attempting to wallpaper the nursery when Louis’ mind wanders to his father.





	A Little Snip

**Author's Note:**

> So I should be working on other things but this wouldn't leave me alone so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ have them being adorable dads.
> 
> Also: The way Louis gives birth is 100% a legit thing. They called it 'twilight sleep' and it was SUPER FUCKED UP. They'd douse you with morphine and scopolamine so you'd enter a dissociative state and tie you to a table because women would thrash so hard from horrible hallucinations, and most had attachment issues when it came to their kids. I actually made it less weird here than it would've been.

Papi and Sergio are attempting to wallpaper the nursery when Louis’ mind wanders to his father.

He doesn’t mean to, not really, but he finds it happening more and more as the children grow and he moves farther along with their daughter. Hugo will spill juice on the rug or Gaspard will scream and lash out when he’s tired and Louis tries to get him in the bath and Papi will be at work, leaving Louis to deal with it alone when he’s stressed and pregnant and angry. He’ll think of him then, of his unwavering demands, of his swift punishments and how even when Louis was trying to do everything right he did everything wrong. It grounds him, reminds him why he needs to be calm when around the children while they’re misbehaving.

He thinks of being thirteen, small and delicate compared to all the other boys, and the sneer on his father’s face when doctor explained why Louis was the way he was after a physical he insisted on after his third round of strep throat that year. 

_Useless to everyone but whatever man wants to breed you like a bitch,_ he had spat, as Louis licked over his teeth and tasted blood.

He had told Papi that story once; Hugo was small, Papi’s big hands cradling their son on his hip as he stood at the stove making dinner. They had been talking about more children, and he wanted to know what he thought when he found out he was one of the very small percentage of men that could carry to term. 

The fury in him was palatable, and he had gently handed over their toddler before he paced their tiny apartment. Finally, he had turned and pulled them both to him, kissing Louis soundly on the mouth.

“If I ever met him, I’d kill him.”

“It’s alright Papi. I can blame him for many things, but I can’t blame him for that. Most men use it to their advantage.”

“It’s… how could you tell your son something like that?”

"It's not an uncommon belief, that we're just there to be bred like dogs," Louis had shrugged, “Most people who knew thought I had done it for my own benefit. Little did they know I wanted nothing less.”

It was the truth. A pregnancy was an easy out; men like him were considered barely a step above a woman, and prison like that was no place for them while pregnant. Letting one of the brute men fuck a baby into you was an easy way to be sent back; if not to a nunnery in France, then at least to a convalescent home somewhere near until you delivered and the baby could be sent to an orphanage or to your family. Most men couldn’t even bring a baby to full term, having all the right organs but all the wrong physicality. For men like that it was easy to just used it as a respite from the horribleness of their situation.

It was everything Louis was terrified of; Papi being removed from his side and their baby being taken away never to be seen again or even worse, raised by his father. 

That terror was the same reason he was so willing to run when Papi did, and gave his name as Louis Charrière and his status as married when they were arrested.

“Louis? Where’d you go, my love?”

Louis shakes himself from his thoughts, smiling at his husband. There's wallpaper paste halfway up his arms, but the walls are done up beautifully for their little girl.

“It's nothing,” He murmurs, going up on his toes to kiss Papi, “Just thinking.”

“About what?”

“You’re a good father, Papi.”

Papi preens at that, making Louis laugh. Sergio groans loudly from behind him, and they both turn to look at him.

“I need a beer. Several, in fact.”

“I have it on good authority there’s a case in the fridge, and your wife will be over to help me with dinner in about twenty minutes.”

“An angel,” Serigo says, pausing to pull Louis’ head in close to press a rough kiss it his hair, “If I had any taste for it I’d make you my wife.”

He gives his head a little shake before releasing him, wandering out of the room. Louis rolls his eyes, not even bothering to correct him. Venezuelan machismo is something else.

 

A few days later Louis wakes up to the bed wet under him.

He's immediately embarrassed; his bladder is horribly unpredictable, especially now that he's actually overdue by two weeks. He's already nudging Papi awake so they can change their sheets when he realizes his hands and sheets are actually wet with blood. 

“Papi,” he says, raising his hands to show they’re dark red.

“Oh god,” he exhales through his nose, hard, “alright. We’re going to get your bag and call Lupita to sit with the boys and leave, right?”

He sits on the edge of the bed as Papi moves around the room. He feels like time is running slow, his hands shaking and head foggy. This isn’t the first time this happened - the two times he fell pregnant between Hugo and Gaspard ended like this - but those were barely in existence before he woke up with blood between his legs and dread in his stomach, Papi hauling him into the shower and whispering in his ear that it would be fine and they’d try again. He knows what it feels like when his daughter moves when she's upset or restless or too awake to sleep, and how Papi's voice can calm her. This is different.

“I shouldn’t be bleeding,” he says, his voice small to his own ears as he’s bundled into their car, sitting on a towel, “It shouldn’t be happening.”

Papi just rests his hand on his knee.

The minute he gets to the hospital he's put into a private room. Multiple doctors are in and out of his space for tests or looks at his stomach and no one will tell him anything but they're all talking to Papi in hushed, worried tones. As soon as they leave his husband’s crying, and that’s when Louis knows something is really wrong.

He wants to ask what’s so upsetting but then someone gives him a shot in his IV and everything goes dark.

 

He jolts awake, groggy. He’s not hurting, but his stomach is flat, and he feels oddly hollow. He gets the distinct feeling that he’s going to be in a world of pain when the medication wears off.

Papi is there, holding their baby in a pink blanket.

“I was right,” He rasps out, and Papi looks like he wants to cry.

“You were.”

He moves around the bed, gently resting Cosette on Louis’ chest before he drops into the chair next to him, exhausted. It’s then that he explains what had happened; Louis’ scars were more than likely weak from the botch job done on him in prison when Hugo was born, and then the attempt to repair it after Gaspard did more to weaken it than save it. The best course of action was to remove everything, and he’ll be fine but unable to have anymore children. 

“No more babies, my love.”

“I don’t know if I could do it even if I still had all the right bits,” he murmurs, still sleepy. A hand clumsily comes up to cradle their daughter’s bottom, bouncing her gently like he remembers Gaspard liking. She huffs, yawning, clearly tired. Louis can sympathize.

"I talked to Lupita and the boys are fine - Hugo's a little mad he can't visit, but I tried to explain why it's not the greatest idea to come now. Sergio's taking care of the restaurant for the week, and probably longer if we need it..."

Louis continues to listen as he explains the arrangements he's made for their family, cuddling their daughter close. He's really thought of everything. 

“You’re a good father, Henri.”

Papi smiles softly at him, like he’s in on something Louis will never understand.

“So are you, my love.”


End file.
